Danny Gans

In 2009 entertainment manager Chip Lightman saw the act he helped bring to Las Vegas, “Donny & Marie Osmond,” vault to the top of Strip entertainment at the Flamingo Las Vegas as one of the city’s top-selling productions, and he helped broker the deal that brought Garth Brooks to Wynn Las Vegas.

Julia Gans, the wife of Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, awoke early on the morning of May 1 to realize that her husband was no longer snoring, according to an incident report released this morning from the Henderson Police Department. At about 6 p.m. the night before she had asked her son to get the entertainer for dinner, but he heard his father snoring and decided not to wake him up. Four hours later she went to the master bedroom and found Gans asleep in bed on his back with his feet slightly elevated, the report indicated.

Danny Gans: Experts: Coroner's scenario plausible but too vague to gauge role of prescription painkillers in Gans' death

Thursday, June 11, 2009

By Marshall Allen

The explanation for what killed Danny Gans raises more questions than it answers, medical experts said Wednesday, opening the door to speculation about the entertainer with a squeaky-clean image. The lack of details by the coroner is allowing questions of drug abuse to be raised. And four independent medical experts interviewed by the Sun question the coroner’s explanation of Gans’ death.

Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans' death was an accident and underlying health problems were a factor, the Clark County coroner said Tuesday. Chronic pain syndrome treated by a pain medication contributed to the death of Daniel Davies Gans. High blood pressure also was a factor, as well as a red blood cell disorder. Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said Gans had a toxic reaction to hydromorphone, which is a common pain medication such as Dilaudid, in addition to other physical causes, he said. Murphy would not release the amount of the drug found in Gans' blood.

As in life, in death Danny Gans filled the showroom. More than 1,000 fans, friends and family members said goodbye to the much adored impressionist Wednesday afternoon at the Encore Theater – which had been his home for barely four months when he died at his house unexpectedly on May 1 of unknown causes. In true Las Vegas style, it was a 90-minute memorial production filled with music and laughter and tears and reminiscing. Gans, 52, spent 15 years on the road before settling in Las Vegas in 1996.

SUN EDITORIAL: The longtime Las Vegas headliner, star of the Encore theater, dies suddenly at home

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Danny Gans came to Las Vegas thinking it would be just another stop in his career as an entertainer, a field he chose after a foot injury wrecked his prospects of becoming a professional baseball player.

IN MEMORY: No other current entertainer was identified as closely with Las Vegas as Danny Gans

Saturday, May 2, 2009

By John Katsilometes

Terry Fator had a great seat Friday afternoon in what was once the Danny Gans Theatre at The Mirage: middle section, second row, third from the aisle. But the stage sat still as Fator, seated nearly alone in a darkened theater that today is named for him, absorbed the news that the man who inspired him to move to Vegas had died.

Las Vegas Strip performer Danny Gans died Friday morning at age 52. Wynn Resorts spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne said Gans died at his Henderson home. She called the death sudden. The Clark County Coroner's Office Friday afternoon said the cause and manner of death are pending.

Danny Gans

Early life: Originally wanted to play baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and did play briefly in the minor leagues. But an injury led him to change careers and become an entertainer. He began performing at corporate functions and by 1995 had his own Broadway show.

Career in Las Vegas: From 1996 to present

Las Vegas venues: Stratosphere Hotel, Rio Las Vegas, The Mirage and Encore Las Vegas. He performed from 2000 to 2009 at the Mirage in his own 1,250-seat theater. He began performing at the Encore Feb. 10, 2009.

Danny Gans’ friends and family maintained that the late entertainer had little use personally for prescription drugs, though his death in May was from an overdose of Dilaudid, (the generic is Hydromorphone) a painkiller. The source of the drug that killed Gans has not been identified.